I hate the way you make me love you

When morning came, the poor covers were a wreck, finding it their job to cover places on Mathias and Lukas' body that were normally known to be the most private.

Lukas was asleep, one arm and one leg wrapped around Mathias, snuggling him without even realizing it. Mathias had been awake for about an hour now, be hadn't moved a muscle for many reasons. One of those reasons being that he didn't want to wake up Lukas and ruin the moment, and also because he was thinking about last night's events and where to go from here.

Sadly, Lukas started to wake up, nuzzling against Mathias' bare chest, starting to become aware of his surroundings. His eyes opened wide when he memories of last night flooded his mind. He shut them again and hid his face more into Mathias' chest, hoping that Mathias was still asleep, so he could escape out of his own room down to breakfast or something.

His hopes of escaping were crushed though when Mathias said, "Good morning, beautiful~"

Lukas sighed and forcibly opened his eyes again. "Hey," he muttered, not too fond of the situation he was in, but also not a morning person at all. Mathias smiled and kissed his forehead, "So uh… Last night was-!"

"Don't say anything else about last night…" Lukas interrupted him. Mathias frowned and sighed, "You don't regret it do you?"

Lukas thought about the answer to that question, not moving from where he was, nuzzled up to Mathias. "N-No…" he finally said, knowing that like all times, it wasn't so bad. He just knew that Mathias would leave soon and they would go to their own separate worlds again, leaving him empty.

"Then why don't you want to think about what happened?" Mathias asked, confused about what Lukas was thinking at the moment.

Lukas shrugged, not wanting to say how he really felt. He knew Mathias didn't feel the same way because Mathias was easy to love. He probably did this kind of thing every weekend even. Mathias sighed, having a somewhat idea of what Lukas wanted to say. "I was thinking the same thing before you woke up," he said, wrapping his arm around Lukas a bit more to show that he wasn't going to leave this time.

"I-I…" Mathias started to say, finding this harder to say than anything he had ever said before. "I don't want this thing that we do to be a one night stand anymore… I want to be with you, Lukas. More than just for what we do at night, but I want to be with you even in public!" Mathias said quickly, all at once to get it out.

Lukas' eyes widened, not expecting that at all. Mathias shied away at Lukas' expression and covered up his confession, "U-Uh I mean only if you're up to it! It was just a random thought that I just came up with now…" He laughed nervously.

"I want this to be more too," Lukas said plainly, knowing that Mathias was lying about not giving the topic much thought. Mathias smiled a little, "Y-You do?" Mathias asked, a grin appearing across his face.

Lukas nodded his head, "I want to be with you Mathias, but... you know how our managers are."

"Dating? Yes I know that they are dating, I was with you. They couldn't possibly say no to us dating if they were, you know?" Mathias replied, smiling.

"And what if their date didn't go well? And they hate each other even more?" Lukas asked, making sure to get all of his questions answered and doubts erased, not wanting to go into this all head first.

Matthias kissed Lukas' forehead, "They were smiling, remember? I can't see how Berwald could possibly mess the date up if he didn't mess it up in the first few minutes."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lukas asked, confused.

Mathias sat up, still hugging Lukas, "It means that if they are happy, we can be happy~"

"Are you sure?" Lukas asked, starting to sit up, pulling away from Mathias' embrace. Mathias caught Lukas' hand before he could pull away completely though, and replied, "Very! Now let's end this rivalry we have been faking for years and show our managers and our friends our great relationship! I think the fans at least will like that better anyway~"

Lukas was about to ask another question to make sure that this wasn't a completely terrible idea, but Mathias quickly kissed him to hush him up about the whole thing. Lukas leaned into the kiss, still having an inner war about himself, but feelings of love being stronger than feelings of concern. Mathias put his hand on Lukas' low waist, pulling his lips away, as he asked, "Are you hungry? We could go downstairs to breakfast, or I could order room service~"

By the way Lukas' face was still flustered and confused, Mathias took the hint to order room service for now. He didn't blame Lukas for being a bit afraid to defy his manager and go against the fan's current interests. Mathias picked up the hotel phone and called room service.

"What do you want to eat?" he asked at first, but then smiled. "Oh wait. I know~"

He then ordered their breakfast, "Hello, can I please have some extra buttery pancakes with coffee and chocolate milk? And also some bacon please! Thank you~"

Lukas was blushing and nuzzling his face into Mathias' chest to hide his face. Mathias thought this was an action of intimacy, so he stayed in that position for a while to keep Lukas like that. After a few minutes of enjoying Lukas' strange action of nuzzling, the door clicked and open, telling them that someone had entered the room. Mathias was about to call out to the room service to just leave the table there and leave, but a Finnish accent called out, "Hello Lukas!" before he could get the chance.

Lukas' eyes widened and he snapped up, "Crap I forgot he was coming this morning!" he whispered, pulling up the covers and fixing his hair. He then looked to Mathias, realizing that he wasn't ready to get yelled out by Tino again.

He grabbed Mathias by his hair and pushed him under the covers, putting a pillow on top of the lump he made in the covers. Tino walked into the bedroom part of the hotel room, and saw Lukas sitting up in bed without a shirt on.

Lukas was hoping that Tino wouldn't ask for him to get out of bed, because when Tino wanted him to do something, he had to do it, and that would definitely out the whole thing that was secretly going on. "Oh you are still in bed?" Tino asked, looking around the messy room and focusing in on Lukas.

"Ya…" Lukas answered, sounding tired, keeping the corner of his eyes on Mathias to make sure no movements were going on. Tino looked around the room again, "Geez you were messy last night. That's not really like you; were you that tired?"

Nodding his head, Lukas stayed silent, afraid that Tino could detect the lies in his voice. He just needed to get him out of his room for a long enough period to decide what to do with Mathias. Lukas was about to make an excuse that would cause Tino to leave, but Tino then bent down and picked up a shirt saying, "Mathias wore this yesterday! Why is this here?"

"Uh…" was all Lukas managed to say, realizing this scene made him look as guilty as he really was. "Ya, he followed me to the hotel and gave me his shirt… He is really weird," Lukas replied, mentally slapping himself for coming up with such a sucky excuse.

Tino looked down at the ground again, already having his suspicions, so he examined more of the clothes. "Did he give you all his clothes? Because his pants and shoes are here… And probably this is his underwear! Wait why is there a dress here? That aside it's obvious you slept with him! Where is he?!"

Lukas put his hand on Mathias head, telling him to stay down, "He is not here and we didn't sleep together. Why did you come to that conclusion so fast?"

Tino was about to shout back at Lukas, knowing that he was lying, but the doorbell to the hotel room then rang, and the door opened, revealing a room service lady with the breakfast table. Lukas closed his eyes, knowing that a breakfast for two would prove that Mathias was here and he was a matter of fact still here.

Tino looked to the service lady and back at Lukas. "You lied to me. And he is still here! Just tell me where he is!" he said, going to Mathias' side of the bed. He looked at the pillow placed over the lump in the covers and sighed, "God I feel so stupid now…"

He then ripped off the covers, revealing Mathias laying there.. Mathias awkwardly looked up at the Finnish manager, smiling, "Hi there~"

Tino's face filled with rage and he looked up to Lukas, "Why?! You know this relationship can't happen, so why do you keep having one night stands with this guy?"

"Can we please talk about this somewhere else?..." Lukas said, quietly, not wanting to be yelled at in front of Mathias. Tino nodded his head, starting to tear up, "You know what? Ya. We'll talk about this somewhere else. Good luck trying to find me though, because I quit."

"What?" Lukas asked, surprised by the turn of events that he thought would never happen in a billion years. "Tino don't do this, we aren't having just one night stands anymore! We want to take this relationship to something more, but just didn't tell you because I didn't want you to get mad at me like this!"

Tino shook his head, "Do whatever you want now, I don't care…" He then left the room before Lukas could say anything else, slamming the door behind him. Mathias awkwardly sat up, looking down, "I'm so sorry… This is all my fault! I'll go talk to him or tell Berwald to talk to him, if that will help!"

Lukas shook his head, getting out of bed to get dressed, "No I'll go talk to him…. After our morning panel though. It's in thirty minutes, but hopefully I'll see him there."

Mathias nodded his head, and started to get dressed. He still felt terrible and wanted to do something about it all, but knew that Lukas wanted to fix the situation himself, so he would just have to let him do it. Both got dressed silently and ate their room service breakfast quickly before leaving to go to the panel.

All the authors were already lined up to go onstage before the show when they arrived, so they knew they would get an earful about being so late. Mathias noticed that Berwald wasn't there either, and was afraid that he may be ruined Berwald's chances with Tino by doing this.

Lukas and Mathias got in the front of the line quickly, staying silent as they thought about their relationship with their managers and how they were going to change because of the last night. The same announcer as yesterday walked onstage and announced the beginning of the panel to the now screaming crowd of fans.

The line of authors walked up onto the stage and sat in their assigned seats at the table, ready to begin the hour long show. Both Lukas and Mathias were looking down at the table, lost in thought, until ten minutes in, when someone asked them a question, wanting to start an argument between the two rival authors.

"Who is your favorite and least favorite author in the room?" the fan asked Mathias, smiling.

Mathias sighed, looking to Lukas with sad eyes. He only wondered for a second if they still wanted to keep this a secret, but he knew that he himself couldn't deal with this anymore. Lukas nodded his head, knowing the meaning behind Mathias' hesitation, so Mathias started to talk with the permission.

"I don't really have a least favorite author, but my favorite author in here is Lukas," Mathias said, simply, staring to the fan in the crowd.

The crowd was speechless for a second, expecting a burn to Lukas but surprised with the complement. The fan raised the microphone back to her mouth, "That is a joke right?..."

Mathias sighed and shook his head, "No.. in fact, Lukas is my favorite person in this room. He always has been."

Lukas looked up, not sure if he was ready for this, but knowing that there was no going back now if he agreed with Mathias. Like always with the Dane, he threw caution into the wind and spoke, "You are my favorite person too…"

Mathias smiled at Lukas' cooperation, and he turned to the crowd, "I love Lukas! I always have, and this whole fighting thing has been fake for a while now!"

"Well kind of," Lukas quickly added, trying to keep a calm face, but finding it hard because of all the astonished faces.

Another fan took a microphone and asked, "Why did you guys fake fight instead of just letting your relationship be known?"

"Because you liked it!" Mathias replied, smiling. "We didn't want to disappoint, but the fights were affecting our relationship, so we decided to stop and tell you all the truth."

The crowd then uproared in confusion or stating their opinion on the idea to their neighbor or the two writers on stage. Lukas' eyes widened, realizing he made a mistake by telling the fans. He turned to Mathias, "Our managers were right, this was a terrible idea!"

Mathias had a quick shock by that line, but quickly recovered, grabbing his microphone and turning it upside down with his hand over it to create a sharp, high pitched noise that filled the room. Everyone stopped talking to cover their ears, and he flipped it back over. He took the silence as an opportunity to then say, "Look, this was a super hard decision to make, and we only just made it a few minutes before walking onstage. I love Lukas more than any of this, so I would give it all up in a heartbeat to be able to walk outside with him in public without acting like I hated him!"

Lukas' face was red, as he listened to what Mathias was saying about him. Mathias continued, "The main reason I even came to these cons was to see Lukas, and you know how hard it is to get Lukas to do something that maybe you guys wouldn't like? He cares about you guys so much, that he would go against his own happiness!"

A silence lingered at the end of Mathias' sentence, as Mathias awkwardly turned to Lukas, "Too much?..."

Lukas, face a shade of pink, shook his head, "Not at all." He then put his mouth to his own microphone and said, "He is right, I care so much about you guys… But I forgot that I need to take care of myself as well and be happy, and I feel happy with Mathias! I-I'm sorry…"

Staring down at the ground, Lukas started mentally freaking out about how he shouldn't have said anything to the fans. He wished he could just turn back the time, and never have slept with Mathias to come to this all… He did love Mathias, but he couldn't disappoint the fans!

"...Don't be sorry, this is actually great," both Mathias and Lukas heard a fan in the crowd say, holding a mic to their shy mouth. "What?..." Lukas asked, confused how any of this could be great.

"Because!" another fan in the crowd said, smiling, "Have you seen you guys' fandoms? We have been coming up with theories about how you guys are dating for years! With the proof, everyone is going to go crazy in a good way!"

Even Mathias was confused with the happiness. "What do you mean you guys wanted us to be together?" he asked, "You guys always wanted us to fight!"

"Ya," a fan replied, "Because you guys fought like a married couple. It was entertaining because it was cute~"

Lukas let out a sigh of relief, thankful of how things were going. Mathias could help but laugh out loud at the fact that the both of them worried over what turned out to be absolutely nothing. He reached his hand under the table and found Lukas', squeezing it a little to show how happy he was.

The rest of the panel was filled with questions about their relationship, and what dates they were planning to do. It was fun for everyone, especially since all the fighting was over with between the two not-so-rivals-anymore.

After the panel, Lukas and Mathias were backstage, holding hands and talking to authors before they had to leave the convention. Mathias kissed Lukas' cheek, getting a light reflexive punch in the stomach for it. Mathias kissed Lukas again, "We can do this in public now, remember?"

Lukas didn't punch him this time, "It is going to take some getting used to, but I am definitely happier now…"

"That's good~" Mathias hugged Lukas tightly. Hearing a small sigh come from Lukas, Mathias asked him what was wrong. Lukas shrugged, "I wonder if Tino already left..."

Mathias was about to reply with comforting words until he saw the door open, and two familiar faces walked in. He stopped hugging Lukas, so the Norwegian could turn around, as he said, "Actually… he is right here."

Mathias stayed next to Lukas to provide support and to see how the next scene would play out between the two. Lukas looked down, "The fans were happier than I expected they would be."

Tino sniffled like he had been crying, lights too dark to see if his face looked the part as well. He smiled and put a hand on Lukas' shoulder, "I know, I watched… I-I'm so sorry, I honestly thought that they only wanted you fighting and that that was what was best for your career! I didn't even think about your happiness or personal life…"

Lukas' eyes were glossed over like always as he was surprised by the sudden apology from Tino. He tilted his head, shaking it a little, as he replied, "Tino don't be sorry… I lied to you, and that is way worse…"

"But you did that to avoid me getting so mad at you!"

"But lying is lying and you are my best friend. I shouldn't have done that…" Lukas sighed, "Will you please be my manager again?"

Tino's eyes widened, "You want me to be your manager again?" He didn't let Lukas change his mind before pulling Lukas into a bone crushing hug saying, "Of course I will! I never not wanted to be your manager in the first place!"

Lukas smiled just a little, hugging Tino back. Mathias grinned, and looked to Berwald who was behind Tino. "So you two are together now?" He whispered to Berwald to not ruin the moment between Lukas and Tino.

Berwald nodded his head, "Tino is even greater once you get to talk to him…"

Mathias smiled, "Nice job, man." He then fist pumped Sweden, overjoyed about this whole situation. How could this all get any better?

Ok it got better….

Only two days after the convention, Mathias got a call from Lukas, this being the first call from Lukas out of fifty three calls from Mathias.

"Hey Lukas!" Mathias yelled through the phone accidentally.

"Hello Dane," Lukas said, causing Mathias to smile at the nickname.

"What's up?"

"Uh…. nothing really…" Lukas replied on the other end of the phone, sipping his coffee, "That's actually why I wanted to ask if you were free to go out on a date with me."

Just like that?! There was no stutter! No hesitation! Mathias swooned at how easy Lukas could ask him out. If he did it, he would be having trouble talking and tripping over his own tongue as he spoke, making a complete fool of himself. Mathias regained his sense of mind, and replied, "Yes of course I would love to! Where do you want to go?"

Lukas shrugged, "I don't really care, just as long as it's public."

Mathias smiled, at that last statement. This date would then be their first time being in public while not pretending to be something they were not. This would be the date where everything was real and they could show how they felt about each other with no worries at all.

Mathias was always a guy for adventure, making his books all about the wonderful genre, but he was definitely ready for a new genre of romance and a new chapter of his life. And most of all, he couldn't be more excited to be spending it with Lukas.